Was Al Qaeda Working on a Super Bomb?
Aired January 24, 2002 - 20:00 ET
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BOETTCHER (voice over): More than a neighborhood, Wazir Arkvar Khan was a campus, a terrorist university for teaching about powerful explosives. This house was a Saudi-funded orphanage that was apparently a front for an al Qaeda training center.
Inside, CNN was led in to rooms strewn with articles left behind by its inhabitants. Among the children's books and orphan ID documents, were trip wires, grenades, a rocket, and these manuals.
ALBRIGHT: They have their own formula for making C-4, which is a military explosive, so they were creating a cadre of people who could go out and try to put together bombs that would have little chance of being detected.
And so, they're not going out to steal military explosives from a base. They're going out and then going to a grocery store, a pharmacy, medical supply store, and buying chemicals, and then making them themselves. And so, it was a group that was being taught to be self-reliant.
BOETTCHER: Other documents shown to CNN reveal the presence of a core group of experts that put together what is known as the al Qaeda encyclopedia.
CNN was shown its 10 volumes and its latest edition, Volume 11 on explosives. A section was provided to CNN. Our experts determined this chapter was to update people in the field about new research results. It includes extensive documentation of how to improve explosives, particularly RDX.
"The goal, to obtain ammonium nitrate free of foreign matter in order to prepare RDX by the new method." BOETTCHER (on camera): RDX can be used as a main explosive charge or a detonator. It is the primary component in a plastic explosive used by terrorists. Known commercially as Semtex, the U.S. military version, developed in the '50s is C-4.
Now research in these documents indicates that al Qaeda was trying to develop its very own brand, one that could be used as a detonator in a very powerful bomb.
VILLA: And the circuitry ultimately ending up with a detonator. BOETTCHER (voice over): Tony Villa is an explosives expert, who has worked extensively for the U.S. Government.
VILLA: One of the advantages would be that you would have it, you would number one have that knowledge and you could, your mobility to move from place to place without having to go back in touch on a resource or touch base with a resource to get that product, leaves you a lot more latitude for mobility and autonomy.
BOETTCHER (voice over): In the super bomb document found by CNN, it is clear al Qaeda wanted to build the biggest bomb of all. The author clearly is knowledgeable of various ways to set off a nuclear bomb.
For example, a little known shortcut to initiate a nuclear explosion is described, but Albright cautions there is no indication that al Qaeda's nuclear work has gone beyond theory.
BOETTCHER (on camera): Why couldn't they build something that could be very destructive, judging by what you've read?
ALBRIGHT: If you're going to make something like a nuclear weapon, you have to learn many things. It is a whole set of manufacturing steps you have to go through, and there's none of that in this manual.
You also have to develop confidence in a design. I mean even a terrorist group that's going to go to the trouble to work on a nuclear weapon, wants to have some certainty that it's going to explode as a nuclear explosive, and not just explode as a high explosive.
BOETTCHER (voice over): Did these men help provide that expertise?
Pakistani nuclear scientist Bashirrudin Makmood and Abdul Majid remain confined to their homes on the orders of Pakistan's government, and are not allowed to speak to anyone outside their families.
They are suspected by American, Pakistani, and other coalition intelligence agencies of having provided some of their nuclear knowledge to al Qaeda. Makmood and Majid spent lots of time in Kabul, running a charity called Ummah Tummir-e Nau.
In an office in the lobby of Kabul's intercontinental hotel, CNN found a document apparently written last May, showing Makmood had agreed to a partnership with Beracat General Trading and Contracting Company. The Beracat group of companies is on the U.S. list of those suspected of aiding terrorists.
Another document shows plans to set up a bank with Beracat, expand an artificial limb factory, and explore the mining of minerals, including uranium inside Afghanistan. U.N. weapons inspectors say Iraq used similar companies as fronts to disguise its nuclear weapons program in the mid-1990s.
Last month, the Bush Administration put Makmood's organization, Ummah Tummir-e Nau, on its terrorist watch list. CNN's repeated efforts to speak with the men were unsuccessful. However, the families of the nuclear scientists continue to say the two men have done nothing wrong.
While the Pakistani government has filed no charges against the men, the government says the investigation is not over, nor are the U.S. efforts to find what al Qaeda was up to.
Nuclear Safety and Security in Pakistan: Under the shades of terrorism by Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra
Conclusion:
"The fact that Al-Qaida may have an intrusive control over Pakistanís nuclear weapons components or infrastructure cannot be ruled out. Pakistan for having its command and control basically human-centric with systemic weak communication network may provide opportunity to the rogue elements to have access to both nuclear material and know-how. However, a stitch in time saves nine.
The imminent threat today is of falling of nuclear weapons in the hands of military/non-military personnel with extreme religious fervour, and accidents both human and technical.
While the movement of nuclear warheads, components and radioactive substances from one place to another inside the country remains vulnerable to theft or sabotage, the movement and intentions of the scientific and engineering community in and outside Pakistan requires to be closely watched.
Prevalence of rational decision-making has always been questionable in Pakistan due to political and military brinkmanship. So remains the safety and security of the Pakistanís nuclear complex."
An excellent read.
Very interesting and yet creepy.